1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method, system and program product for supporting a transaction between electronic device users. Specifically, the present invention allows trading partners to be matched with each other based on a proximity of their respective locations.
2. Background Art
As technology continues to advance, the desire to obtain better ways to exchange goods, services and/or information grows. Specifically, the growing popularity of the Internet has lead to an increased exchange between buyers and sellers over the world wide web. For example, today a consumer can purchase clothing, order meals and obtain weather information all from his/her computer. This convenience has also been aided with the increased popularity of web-capable, wireless devices such as personal digital assistants, mobile telephones, pagers, etc. In an attempt to capitalize on this growing trend, several websites have been deployed that are intended to foster on-line transactions. For example, the on-line auction site EBAY.COM allows computer users to buy and sell goods over the Internet in an auction format.
Unfortunately, no existing system fosters exchanges where co-location of the trading parties is necessary. For example, if seller is attempting to his/her sell tickets to an upcoming sporting event (i.e., in a legal fashion), there is no way to automatically identify ready, willing and able purchasers in close proximity to the seller. Accordingly, many potential trading partners pass like ships in the night.
The failure to automatically match trading partners in close physical proximity to each other is only compounded by the above-described pervasiveness of wireless devices. As known in the art, many wireless devices are network-enabled under the I.E.E.E. 802.11 or Bluetooth standards. In the case of the former, the I.E.E.E. standard 802.11(b) sets forth a specification for a high-frequency wireless local area network (often referred to as Wi-Fi). In the case of the latter, the Bluetooth standard sets forth a specification for wireless devices to communicate on a peer to peer basis. However, given the inherently mobile nature of wireless devices, a device user can access the world wide web in one city (e.g., New York) on one day, and another city the next day (e.g., Las Vegas). However, no existing system allows trading partners to be matched based on their physical locations at a particular point in time. Such a feature could be extremely valuable for several reasons. For example, the wireless device user attempting to sell his/her tickets might not realize that a willing buyer is one block away. Moreover, an employee (e.g., Joe Smith) of a particular company (e.g., IBM) in an airport during a layover, might want to know if there are other employees of the same company also in the airport. Without the capability to identify individuals based on proximity of location, good potential matches might never be made.
In view of the foregoing, there exists a need for a method, system and program product for supporting a transaction between electronic device users. Specifically, a need exists for a location of a requester issuing a transaction request to be determined based on an electronic device (e.g., wireless device, personal computer, etc.) he/she is using. A further need exists for a trading partner to be identified based on the trading partner's capability to fulfill the request, and a proximity of location of the trading partner to the requester.